In A Mirror Sparkley Chapter 5: The First System
Being jumped by an unknown craft was only ever theorized,
and never expected in the first day after leaving earth. The
sleek green shape, with it's long narrow hull and pylons
swooping down like wings, shot toward the Endeavor from
behind at an insane relative velocity. Their refusal to answer
hails indicated less than friendly intentions.
Captain Carter ordered shields up. Most of her ship's weapons
were useless at warp speeds. She planned to drop out of warp
just as the enemy came into their own theorized weapons
range, hopefully throwing the opponent off long enough to deploy
drones.
As they waited the crew reflected that this ship could be on a
course for earth, emphasizing the need to detect such potential
threats early to allow for an intercept outside the solar system.
"Drop to sublight." The captain said looking at one of the displays
around her. As the other ship shot past them at several hundred
times the speed of light she said,"Deploy drone squadrons alpha
through cappa, Ready the rocket launchers." Twenty one combat
drones poured out of the ship's launch tubes and took up position
behind the Endeavor's bulk. This position shielded them from
immediate detection by the enemy, and hopefully would give the
impression they were harmless.
As the other ship came toward them again they launched what the
records called a photonic missile. It was very similar to the EMP
rockets carried aboard the Endeavor except it used a matter/antimatter
reaction to produce a massive release of pure energy. It also had
a better guidance system, allowing for firing from longer range.
The Endeavor's shields thickened, adding an extra four layers to the
projected point of impact. This had the effect of making that section
of shields temporally three times as powerful as their opponents. The
missile detonated almost in contact with the outer layer, the non-shaped
charge wasted over eighty percent of its energy on open space. The
remaining energy dissipated the outer three layers of shield before
splashing on the fourth, totally dissipating before reaching the last layer.
"Now it's our turn." the captain said with an evil look in her eyes,"Initiate
drone assault, stand by on rockets, I want their weapons and engines
down. But let them keep breathing."
The small fleet of drones swooped out from behind the Endeavor and
shot toward the unknown assailant. The other ship fired its disruptors
and managed to take out two drones just before they fired. Nineteen
anti graviton cannons fired as one, raking across the shields on the
aggressive ship. The shields failed as energy fed back into the generators,
causing them to go into emergency shutdown to avoid exploding.
Jennifer Carter grinned and gave the order to fire. Eight rockets streaked
toward the target, then eight more, and eight more. Twenty four rockets
in all sped for the target at full acceleration. With power surges still playing
havoc with their systems the other craft did not even see the threat.
The first wave detonated toward the nose of the ship, blinding it as sensor
control boards sparked and fused. The next wave spread out and hit the
weapons and power feeds leading them, pulling the enemies teeth. The last
eight rockets angled slightly on their limited maneuvering jets and detonated
behind the ship, the shaped charge sending huge amounts of energy cascading
into the enemies propulsion system, rendering them immobilized.
The captain sighed,"Okay Max, terminate simulation. Good work people." with
that the attacking ship disappeared, replaced with the streaked star scape of
warp travel."We'll have a formal evaluation tomorrow, but that was certainly
a good show."
The next day the XO reviewed their performance in the sim. The gist was
that they did well against the weakest Klingon ship they had data on.
They only lost two drones, and the other ship was salvageable. This could
definitely be called a win.
Then he criticized tactical for using six times as many rockets as needed.
That was the only real point he could fault. The rest of the sim had gone
according to plan, except for the captain's rather unexpected use of
braking. He hadn't expected that, so the simulated ship flew right past
them, having to turn around. This gave them time to deploy drones in
sufficient number to strip away the targets shields in seconds.
With the evaluation over they returned to their usual tasks, monitoring
ship's systems and adjusting power levels as needed. The rest of their
time was spent in whatever way they chose. Many searched the database,
creating personal play lists from all the music and movies available.
Others played games, from poker to chess. Some even went so far as
to read all those works they had available.
The most exciting thing to happen for the first half of the journey was
the single combat sim. At the halfway point they dropped the first relay
to ensure continued contact with Earth. Their subspace radio was
designed to reach many times further, but the purpose was to create
a multiple redundancy network to ensure continuous communications
with the sensors, and eventually their colonies.
This lack of activities seemed to have no effect on the captain and XO.
They spent no less than four hours a day playing chess, discussing their
thoughts on the ships operations.
On the third day they were sitting on opposite sides of the board when
the XO said,"When do you think I should run the next sim?"
The captain finished her move and stated,"I think the best time to run
them is the first day after we clear each system. That way we can
evaluate and decide if we need to do it again later on. I don't want us
to get burned out on sims."
The XO would have liked to run more sims but could also understand
the captain's point."I don't see any problems with that, but boredom
is going to become an issue in a month or so."
"Not with all the questions and speech requests we have already
received. They may slow down later on but for the first three months
we are all going to be busy."
"I'm sure Lily will be just thrilled with that idea" He grinned evilly across
the board.
"She dose have the most, but she is the co-founder of space travel."
They both fell silent after a brief laugh. Back to concentrating on the
game.
A light year out the sensors resolved the upcoming system. Three
stars, a half dozen gas giants, twenty small moons each, and an
indeterminate number of asteroid belts. The belts seemed to flow
in and out of each other through intricate patterns dictated by the
pull of the stars and giants. This boiled down to a shooting gallery
for the ship and it was decided to keep the shields up at all times
while inside the system's outer planets.
The shortest flight path necessary to drop all the probes needed
resembled a lumpy Z. Which meant two days navigating the system.
When they were done they had established the first survey network
and protocols governing its composition. This process gave them a
chance to do some scans as they passed, confirming the fact that the
system would be a good mining prospect one day. As far as colonization
was concerned the system was a write off, lacking even one habitable moon.
Moving away from the system at low warp they each hoped to find
something more interesting at the next stop. All of them had slightly
different opinions as to what interesting might be, ranging from suitable
planets to other space faring races. But clearing the last major navigational
hazard the Endeavor once again jumped to warp five and was off toward
its next adventure.
I realize this chapter is a little dry, but I'm trying to get to their next contact
without skipping too much. That means the occasional dry chapter. Thanks
to those people who reviewed and especially to those who voted in the poll.
It will be up until I start writing the next chapter.
Thanks again to my wife for proofing this for me. She enjoys my stories but
sometimes my spelling and typos could tax a saint.
Once again please review. Even if you just say that you like or hate it. The
encouragement helps. Or is it the schizophrenia? I'm working on three projects
and have another two in the planning stages, so it may be a few days before
the next chapter posts.
